Sadly, shootings at high schools and colleges have come to seem all too common, but in a disturbing development, yesterday there was one at an elementary school near Seattle. A boy apparently brought a gun in his backpack to his third grade class, and it accidentally went off and wounded an 8-year-old girl. The incident, occurred at Armin Jahr Elementary in Bremerton, Washington, and the student has been booked into juvenile detention while the matter is being investigated.

The girl, Amina Kocer-Bowman, was shot in the abdomen and is in critical condition at a Seattle hospital. Apparently her relatives gave a thumbs up to reporters outside the hospital, so hopefully that is a good sign that she's going to be OK.

The husband of the teacher who was in charge of the classroom where the shooting occurred said the boy with the gun had recently transferred to the school, and his wife had talked about how the boy was a problem in class. They don't yet know where he got the gun, but you can bet it's going to be a long time before he gets his hands on one again. It's lucky that more kids weren't hurt, but it's a very sad day when you send your kid to third grade and have to worry that there will be a gun in the room.